ARAWA GIFT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1942, Page 4

ARAWA GIFT

TO NATIONAL PATRIOTIC FUND MAORI PEOPLE ANXIOUS TO PULL WEIGHT. GRANTS TO POLISH RED CROSS & RUSSIA. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A cheque for £l,OOO from the Ar awn tribe has been received by the National Patriotic Fund Board to be credited to the quota required to be raised bv the Rotorua Inter-Zone Patriotic Committee. Handing it over at the last meeting of the board, Major Vercoe, D. 5.0., said this was a time when the Maori people felt that they should try to do just a little bit' more than talk about loyalty to the King. Though they did not over-possess this world’s good, they liked to feel that they at any rate were trying to pull their weight in this colossal struggle. He explained that the money was part of the revenue from land controlled by the Arawa. Trust Board.

“We feel,’ 1 said Major Vercoe, “that seeing it comes from the soil of our ancestors, it will be more welcome to you.” The National Patriotic Fund Board has decided to remit £6,000 to the Polish. Red Cross in England and also £25,000 to the High Commissioner for New Zealand in London to provide comforts for Russia.

The Hon. W. Perry said today that, including these amounts, the board in 1941 and 1942 has forwarded approximately £140,000 in cash and goods to the value of approximately £15,000 overseas for sufferers in blitzed Britain and for suffering Greeks, Poles, Russians and Maltese, showing the advantage of the all purposes appeal.